


Beat the Odds Together

by crimsontheory



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, YouTuber Harry, YouTuber Louis, but it's a major spoiler for the fic so i'm not going to tag it, it's nothing triggering so it should be okay, there's something else that i should probably tag
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-06
Updated: 2018-02-06
Packaged: 2019-03-14 16:36:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,499
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13594095
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crimsontheory/pseuds/crimsontheory
Summary: Harry and Louis are both YouTubers who met and starting dating through YouTube. One morning Harry wakes up to a surprise video from Louis.





	Beat the Odds Together

**Author's Note:**

> Hi hello! First of all, sorry for the shit summary, I suck at summaries. When I came up with this idea, I thought it was pretty cute, but I'm not sure how well it translated to fic. I probably, most definitely, didn't do it justice.
> 
> I wrote this in past tense, which is still a huge struggle for me for some reason, but I kind of enjoy it. So every now and then I'll toss in a past tense fic.
> 
> Title is taken from You're Still The One by Shania Twain which plays a key part in this fic.

It was raining. That was the first thing Harry noticed when he woke up. The second thing was that he was alone. 

Nine times out of ten, he would wake up before Louis, so he was only _a little_ worried that the other side of the bed was empty. It was still warm when Harry rolled over, so Louis must not have been awake for too long. 

Something hard and thin poked into his shoulder and he scrunched his nose in confusion. He pulled the object loose from underneath him and was even more confused when he recognized it as his laptop. He definitely remembered leaving it in his office last night before he came to bed, but he was in that awkward state of not quite awake but not really sleeping either, so his brain was a little foggy

He was just about to fall back to sleep when he saw something bright pink in the corner of his eye. There was a post-it note stuck to the top of his laptop, right over the little apple, a message scribbled on it in Louis’ handwriting. _Open me and press play._

Okay, Harry was _definitely_ awake now and he was _definitely_ still confused, even more so than before. And where the hell was Louis? 

He sat up in the bed and leaned back against his pillows, placing his laptop in his lap and lifting it open. It loaded onto a video on Louis’ YouTube channel that was posted that same day titled _A Very Important Question_. Harry glanced down at the time in the corner of the screen. It was only a little past nine in the morning, so Louis must have only just uploaded it. 

None of this made any sense and Harry still had no clue what was going on but hit play on the video nonetheless. 

It started off with Louis sitting in his filming room as most of his videos do. He was looking down and had one hand balled into a fist with the other cupping it, both thumbs pressed against his chin and Harry could tell just by the expression on Louis’ face that he was nervous. 

Louis confirmed that himself when he finally spoke about twenty seconds into the video. “This is probably the most nervous I have ever been in my entire life.”

That made Harry worried. Louis rarely got nervous. He was used to performing in front of people when he was in drama when he was younger and now, uploading videos of himself for millions of people to see never even phased him. 

“I’m going to do something at the end of this video that will drastically change my life,” Louis continued on screen. “For better or for worse, I’m not quite sure yet, but either way my life is going to change. And it’s not the uncertainty of the outcome that’s making me nervous, it's actually _doing_ what I’m going to do. But you’ll find out more about that towards the end of the video.”

Harry was still worried. Louis was staring back at him from his computer screen looking scared out of his mind and none of what he just said helped to clarify anything. Harry automatically started assuming the worst.

“I wanted you all to be a part of this with me because I’ve shared everything in my life with you all,” Louis said, obviously addressing his subscribers. “Whether it’s been good or bad, you’ve been there by my side through it all and it didn’t feel right to keep this hidden from you, so I decided to include you in this. It’s probably an unconventional way to include you, but I thought you would like that because when have I ever been conventional? That’s enough rambling from me for now, so let’s get on with it.”

The clip of Louis fades into a different clip of him and Harry the day they met at YouTube conference six years ago. Harry was a nervous wreck that day. He had only stumbled onto Louis’ videos about a week prior to them meeting and he was smitten after just one video. Seeing Louis in person just made Harry’s embarrassing crush on him even more real because _somehow_ Louis was even more beautiful in real life.

A song started to fade in alongside with the video clip and Harry immediately recognized it. It was a song he grew up listening to and had always been one of his favorites, always meant a lot to him. It means even more to him now after having met Louis because it’s _their_ song. Because of how they met, through YouTube, so many people told them that they’d never make it, but here they are five years later and still going strong. Plus the fact that they’re two men in a relationship and all the hatred that comes along with that. It’s 2018, can’t people just love who they want to love without any of the ridiculous backlash?

As Shania sang over video clips of the two of them, Harry tried to keep his tears at bay. This song always made him a little emotional, but hearing it while seeing him and Louis together through the years made it a little harder to control. 

It must have taken Louis hours to put this montage together. Most of the clips were happy ones or funny ones, but there were also a couple not so great ones. Like when they were moving into their new house and they couldn't agree on how they wanted to set up the furniture and they argued about it almost all day before the realized how ridiculous they were being. Harry was still a little bitter that Louis vlogged that and then _uploaded_ it. 

The very last clip was from the most random video they’ve ever made, but it was still their most popular video to this day. They were just driving about ten minutes up the road to the supermarket and they decided to film their drive for the hell of it. They were talking about literally nothing and most of it didn’t even make sense, but people loved it for some reason.

Louis popped back on screen after the montage just like he was at the beginning of the video. Harry wiped away the stray tears that escaped, and he hoped that Louis would finally explain what the hell this video was about and why it was so important for Harry to watch it right away. 

“I’m so incredibly grateful for all the opportunities YouTube has given me. I never thought this ridiculous channel of mine would have grown to what it is now. There’s about five and a half million of you subscribed to me which still blows my mind every single day.”

Harry sank further into the pillows underneath him as he listened to Louis talk. He definitely related to what Louis was saying because he felt the same way about his own channel.

“I’ve been lucky enough to meet some of you,” Louis said, looking a little more comfortable than he did at the beginning of the video. “A lot of you have told me how much of an impact I’ve had on your life and that my videos make you happy and make you laugh and that means everything to me. _That_ is why I’m doing this and why I will continue to do this. I appreciate every single one of you. Even you—” Louis pointed directly at the camera. “—watching right now. If this is the first video of mine you have ever seen or if this is the first and only video of mine you will ever see, I love you. Thank you for being here and thank you for watching.”

“The one thing YouTube has brought me that I am the most thankful for is Harry.” At hearing his own name, Harry sat up straighter in bed. “Even if you’ve never heard of me before I’m sure you’ve heard of Harry. As in Harry Styles. He’s like the OG YouTuber and he has a little over twelve million subscribers now. He’s also my boyfriend for those of you who don’t know.”

Harry had started to realize that this video had something to do with _him_. With the montage of the both of them and Louis talking about him directly. He still didn't fully understand it, but he knew he played a key part in it.

“We met about six years ago at one of those YouTube meetups. We literally ran into each other in the bathroom of all places. I made a complete tit out of myself because there was Harry standing right in front of me who I had a massive crush on for years and I was starstruck.”

Harry laughed because he was pretty sure he was the worst out of the two of them that day. Louis seemed cool and calm like he always was while Harry was a stumbling mess.

“I found his videos the same way I’m sure a lot of you found them. I can’t even remember what video I was watching at the time, but one of his was in the little recommend bar on the side and I thought he was cute as soon as I saw his curly little head in that thumbnail. I spent the rest of that day watching as many of his videos as I could and I’ve been a goner ever since. By some sort of miracle he happened to like me too and long story short, we now live together and have been dating for five years.”

Louis stopped and took a deep breath before he continued. “Harry is honestly the best thing to ever happen to me. He makes me a better person and he’s the reason I wake up every morning. The fact that I get to wake up next to him all those mornings make it even better. He’s the best person I’ve ever met, everything about him is so _good_ and I don’t deserve him, but somehow I got lucky enough to have him and I won’t ever let him go if I can help it. I love him more than anything in this world and he tells me that he loves me too which I still have a hard time believing. Okay, enough of this sappy shit, let’s get on to the reason why this video is titled what it is.”

Harry had an idea what the reason behind the title might be, but surely he was wrong. He wouldn't put it past Louis putting it in a video, but they’ve never _seriously_ talked about it. Surely, Harry was wrong.

“I’m sure most of you have figured it out by now, but if you haven’t, you’re about to,” Louis explained. "Harry, hi baby. I’ve been planning this for weeks so I know you’re watching this right now. You saw the montage I made and you heard all the sappy things I said about you, so there’s only one more thing for me to do.” Louis brought his fist up to his mouth and cleared his throat. “Harry Edward Styles, will you marry me?” 

Then the video ended, just cut to black. 

Harry was in shock. That was the only way he could think to describe what was happening to him. He was pretty sure autoplay was on and there was another one of Louis’ videos playing but he couldn’t be too sure because he couldn’t focus on anything. He couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think, couldn’t _move_. 

He could _feel_ his heart beating—about a thousand beats a minute—so he knew he was still alive, but he couldn’t function. He was just sat there staring at his laptop screen, but not able to process anything. 

Louis wanted to _marry_ him. That was all Harry had ever wanted since he was younger; to find someone to spend the rest of his life with. And Louis was one hundred and ten percent that person. They’d only discussed in passing, jokingly, never sat down and discussed it at length, so Harry never thought Louis wanted to settle down with him. 

It wasn’t until Harry heard a noise coming from the other end of the room that he was pulled out of his stupor. That’s also when he noticed he had been crying. He could see Louis there in the doorway of their bedroom, _down on one knee_ , but he was a little blurry due to all the tears in Harry’s eyes. 

“Hopefully those are happy tears,” Louis said, chuckling. “And not ‘I can’t believe this fucking idiot wants to marry me how do I let him down gently’ tears.”

That made Harry bark out a wet laugh and he furiously wiped at his eyes. Now that his vision was a bit clearer, he could see Louis holding up a little black box with a silver ring nestled inside. He couldn’t quite make out what the ring looked like from that far away, but he knew it was perfect and it took his breath away. 

“They’re definitely happy tears,” Harry replied. 

“Can you give me an answer so I can stop crouching down like this? I’m getting too old for this shit,” Louis complained. It couldn’t have been too much of a complaint though because he was smiling through the whole thing. 

“The answer is yes,” Harry said, shoving his laptop off to the side. “Without a single doubt in my mind, the answer is yes.”

Louis rose from his kneeling position and took a step into the room, his eyes wide and hopeful. “Yes?”

“Yes!” Harry exclaimed, jumping a little in his spot on the bed. “I will marry you, Louis. I’d marry you right this second if you’d let me.”

Louis laughed as he walked to the edge of the bed, the ring box still clutched tightly in his hand. “As much as I would love that, I’m afraid our mums would murder us if we got married without them there.”

Unfortunately, Harry had to agree with him on that, but he couldn’t be upset about not marrying Louis right then and there for too long because Louis was taking the ring out of its box. Harry held his breath as Louis slipped the ring onto his left hand and he felt more tears fall as it perfectly settled at the base of his finger. 

He ignored how wet his face was when Louis pulled him in for a kiss. “I love you so much, Harry. I can’t wait to be your husband.” 

Of course, Louis had to go live on his channel afterward because he didn’t want to leave all his viewers hanging; they needed to know what Harry’s answer was. Even though Harry was pretty sure they all knew the answer already. 

Most of it was Louis showing off Harry’s ring and Harry crying even more, but at least they were happy tears. 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed! Comments & kudos are always welcome!  
> I'm [ireallysawanangel](http://ireallysawanangel.tumblr.com) on tumblr, so come say hi!


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